Debut show pleases Cummins

OUR BUREAU

Calcutta: Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins, who made his IPL debut for the Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday against the Chennai Super Kings, said that to bowl a wicket-maiden in the very first over and that too at the Eden Gardens made his day special.

“Fortunately it was a wicket-maiden… couldn’t have dreamt of that. It really helped me get off to a good start,” Cummins told iplt20.com on Wednesday.

He also enjoyed bowling with the vociferous Eden crowd behind him. “It’s been amazing. I have heard a lot about the stadium, and especially in our second innings, when we were getting close to our target, those Mexican waves were great and KKR chants were probably the loudest that I have ever heard,” he said.

Talking about Dwayne Smith’s dismissal, Cummins said, “I was lucky. You are always trying to bowl balls like that and it is very rare that you do. So you have to appreciate it, and I hope that I will be able to bowl them on demand.”

Cummins said captain Gautam Gambhir’s advice had helped him after he was hit for 16 runs in the second over.

“You have to stay in the moment and not worry about what happened in your first spell and just try and do whatever you want to do later in the innings.

“So I was just trying to keep it tight. I spoke to Gauti and we worked out a plan, and fortunately, it came off well for all our bowlers.

“It is a pretty slow wicket here at Eden Gardens, so we were just trying to mix it up a little with a few slower balls.

Cummins has also learnt a lot from bowling coach Wasim Akram. “He has been great. He works with me a lot in the nets.

“He was a white-ball bowler in the subcontinent and he has been the best there was. The way he swings the ball, holds the ball and plans games, you can learn a lot from him. It’s good to have him around,” he said.